Noiseless railway-crossing.



T. KITAOKA.

NOISELESS RAILWAY CROSSING.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 25. 191B.

Patented Aug. 13, 1918. 2 SHEETS-SHEET I T. KITAOKA.

NMSELESS RAILWAY CROSSING.-

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Specification of Letterslatent.

Application filed February 25,1918. Serial No. 218,986.

To all whom it may concern: Y I

1 Be it known-that I, TonAKnKnlAonA, a subject of the Emperor of Japan,residing at Los Angeles, in the'county of Los Angel-esandStateo'f'Californimhave invented a new and useful NoiselessRailway-Crossing,of which the following is a specification.

This invention has relation to improvements in devices for forming acontinuous rail or rails at a railway crossing, and i ts objects are toprovide means for avoiding the pounding of the wheels of a railway carin passing the crossing, and to provide simple, inexpensive, andeffective parts and combinations of elements for accomplishing thispurpose.

Another object is to provide a device of this character which isreliable in use and entirely automatic in operation.

This description is the disclosure of one form of the invention, whilethe claim defines the actual scope thereof.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical mid-section of. a railwaycrossing to which my invention has been applied. Fig. 2 is a detailperspective view of an operating lever employed in my device. Fig. 3 isa fragmental plan view showing the parts in reverse position from thatshown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a fragmental and sectional elevation with theparts in position as shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a plan view of thecrossing.

Referring to the drawings, the main rails 6,7, of intersecting tracks,are of the grooved type having inner upturned flanges 8, and providedwith spaces 9, 10, allowing the passage of the wheel flanges of apassing car, and adapted to be filled by suitable blocks 11, 12,respectively, which are shifted to operative position to form acontinuous and practically unbroken rail surface for a car going ineither direction, the blocks being automatically shifted in sets tooperative position, and one set being shifted to inoperative position asthe other is shifted to operative position.

The block actuating levers 13, connected to the main rails by pivotalmeans 14, are mounted in slotted portions of the rails, with their uppersurfaces 15, and the'blocks 11, 12, normally flush with the upper surface of the adjoining rails. When in operative position, blocks 11 or12, rest upon supporting ends 16, of the movable bars 17, which aremaintained in operative position by p i gs ,18, inte posed between thebar and retaining members 19, on rods 2.0. The actuating levers 13 areprovided with inclined faces 21. adapted toengage with the fianges ofthe approaching car wheelsand be operated thereby. Levers 13 aresupported by link members 22, 2.3, and the downward movement of levers13 will cause an angular movement of said link members and actuate thebar 24 which is connected to' link'member 23. Bars 24 are provided with=up-wardly extending lugs 25, which engage with the movable bars 17,and, as levers 13 are depressed, shift the ends 16 to release position,and allow the blocks 11, 12, to move downwardly into the position asshown in Fig. 3.

Means for simultaneous movement of the supporting and filling blocks 11,12, to automatically fill certain of the spaces and thus form continuousrails for a track, consist of compound bell-crank levers 26, havingcrankarms 27, 28, and 29, arranged to swing in different planes, andinterconnected by the links 30, for operating in unison to actuate thebars 24.

Assuming the crossing to be in the position as shown in Fig. 5, with thegap-closing elements 11 in working position and trip levers 31 in raisedposition, a car approaching the crossing on track-rails 6-, willdepressthe levers 31, thu moving the links 22, 23, to actuate thecorresponding locking bar and withdraw the supporting ends 16 frombeneath the blocks 11 which will be depressed to allow the passage ofthe wheel flanges. Simultaneously the levers 21 will be raised, and thecorresponding filler blocks 12 will be shifted to operative position,being lifted by the lugs 32 on the actuating leversi.

Patented A11". 13, 1918.

When the blocks 12 are in operative posi tion, the bars 17 and theirsupporting ends 16 are actuated by the springs 18, to operativeposition, being interposed between the blocks 12 and pillow members 33.The outer ends of link members 24 move between roller guides 34, and thesupporting blocks 11 and 12, and levers 13 and 31, are retained inposition by rail flanges 8. It will be noted that blocks 11 and 12, arepivotally connected to their respective actuating-levers 13 and 31, sothat the blocks are tilted. upon depressing the actuating levers.

The arrangement of the connecting links 24 and '30, with compound levers26, is such that when the blocks are raised to bridge 7 the grooves ofthe other track so that the wheels of a car will pass the intersectingtrack without jolt or noise.

While the described combination of railway crossing elements is welladapted to serve the purposes for which it is intended, it is to beunderstood that no limitation is made to the precise details set forth,but changes may be made in accordance with the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

The combination with a railway crossing having gaps at the points ofintersection, vertically movable blocks adapted to bridge 15 the gaps,spring-actuated bars normally supporting the filler blocks in operativeposition, actuating levers adapted to be depressed by the flanges ofapproaching car wheels, angularly disposed links supporting theactuating levers, horizontally dlsposed links connecting the angularlinks with the springactuated bars, compound bell-crank levers toactuate the horizontally disposed links, and interconnecting links forthe compound bell-crank levers whereby simultaneous movement of thespring actuated bars is effected.

In testimony whereof I hereunto alfix my signature this 19th day ofFebruary, in the year 1918.

In presence 015- S. HATAYE, J. W. Mosmm.

Ccpies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.

TORAKI KITAOKA.

